Spiced Quas with Fibre

Spiced Quas is our winter seasonal flavour. Rye and barley are fermented with our 180-year-old sourdough culture, and the finished kvass is warmed with natural flavourings: our own winter spice extract, with notes of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, star anise and orange peel.

Cinnamon leads, cloves and cardamom follow, and the malt underneath stays toasted and dry. It is festive warmth without the sugar of mulled drinks: cinnamon-forward, clove-led and never sweet.

It drinks more like a dark winter ale than a soft drink, made for slow sipping. If a seasonal ale is your usual and you are not drinking, this is the can to reach for.

Each 330ml can is high in fibre, with 6.7g from chicory root, and low in sugar, with 2.4g of sugars per 100ml and about 59kcal per can. It is plant-based and suitable for vegans. It contains gluten from rye and barley.

Spiced is sold as Live Quas, unfiltered and unpasteurised, with over 500 billion live cultures in every can. Keep it in the fridge at 2–6°C, where it keeps for six weeks. As a seasonal flavour, it is not available all year.

Kvass is a traditional fermented drink made from rye and barley, drunk across Eastern Europe for around a thousand years. It is malty, lightly tangy and naturally sparkling. Quas is our sourdough fermented take on it, made in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In the glass. Cloudy chestnut brown like the rest of the range, with a fine head and small natural bubbles.

Nose. Cinnamon first, then clove and cardamom over toasted malt, lifted by orange peel and star anise.

Palate. Toasted malt and winter spice, with the clean sourness of the range and a lean, restrained carbonation.

Finish. Clove-led warmth and a dry, lingering spiced close.

First sip, second sip. The first sip is all cinnamon and clove. On the second, the rye and barley come through underneath, and the spice settles into the malt.

How to serve. Fridge-cold and straight, in a stemless tulip glass or a wine tumbler, with no ice. If you want a little theatre, add a cinnamon stick or a twist of orange peel. Keep it to one.

With food. It drinks like a dry, dark winter ale, so rich festive plates are the match: clove-studded glazed ham, roast goose or duck with orange, a game pie, slow-braised lamb with cinnamon and cardamom, or pork belly with apple. On an ordinary night, sausage and mash with onion gravy. On the cheese board, nutty Comté, aged Gouda or a mature cheddar. For pudding, a small glass against Christmas pudding or a mince pie. Keep it for fragrant spice rather than fierce heat.

When to open one. By the fire on a cold evening, with a winter roast, or as the last drink of the day.

Malty and tangy, with a clean, dry finish. Original leans towards dried fruit and gentle spice, Ginger brings fresh ginger warmth, and Spiced brings warming winter spice.

Spiced starts from the same base as Original, then adds natural flavourings after fermentation. The list below is the label's list.

• Scottish water. Most of what is in the can, and the base of every batch.
• Rye and barley. The grain gives Quas its colour, body and malty depth, and it feeds the sourdough culture. Both contain gluten, so Quas is not suitable for people with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity.
• Chicory inulin fibre (2.3%). A plant fibre from chicory root. It is why every can is high in fibre, with 6.7g per 330ml.
• Sugar. A small amount gives the culture something to ferment. Part of it is used up during fermentation, and the finished drink has 2.4g of sugars per 100ml.
• Erythritol. A natural sugar alternative that comes from plants, used in a small amount to soften the sourness without adding sugar.
• Natural flavourings. Our own winter spice extract, prepared in small batches and added once the drink has fermented. It brings the warmth and the aroma: notes of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, star anise and orange peel.
• Sourdough cultures. Our 180-year-old starter, with over 100 types of yeasts and lactic acid cultures living together. They make the sparkle and the clean sourness.

What is not in it: no artificial flavourings, no preservatives and no acidity regulators.

Original and Spiced have 2.4g of sugars per 100ml, and Ginger has 2.5g, so every flavour is low in sugar.

Quas is a rye and barley sourdough fermentation. We ferment Scottish water, rye and barley with our 180-year-old sourdough starter, a living culture with a natural community of more than 100 types of cultures, yeasts and lactic acid cultures among them.

Working together, they make a complex fermentation. The yeasts give the gentle natural sparkle and the bready aroma, and the lactic acid cultures give the clean sourness. Ginger gets freshly pressed ginger, Spiced our own winter spice extract, summer's Mint & Lime starts with a spearmint tea base and a dash of lime juice, and everything is made in small batches in Edinburgh.

Quas is never filtered, and Live Quas is not pasteurised, so the cultures are still in the can when you open it.

A sourdough starter is a living mix of yeasts and lactic acid cultures, kept going by regular feeding with flour and water. Ours has been fed and kept going for around 180 years, and it holds over 100 types of cultures.

We never add single cultures or brewer's yeast, so the starter does all the fermenting. Different cultures make different acids and aromas: the yeasts give the gentle sparkle and the bready notes, and the lactic acid cultures give the clean sourness. That mixed community is why Quas tastes layered rather than simply sour.

We count them. Samples of Live Quas are diluted many times and spread onto plates of growth medium. Over a few days, each live culture grows into a visible colony, so counting the colonies and multiplying back up tells us how many were in the can. These are called colony forming units, or CFU.

Testing across batches finds over 500 billion live cultures in every 330ml can. The figure applies to Live Quas only, because it is unpasteurised. You can see how the counting is done on our science of kvass page.

Filtering removes cultures from a drink, and pasteurising inactivates them with heat. Both extend shelf life, which is why so many drinks go through one or the other.

We leave Live Quas unfiltered and unpasteurised because much of its character comes from the culture. The trade-off is a shorter shelf life and a drink that has to live in the fridge.

Live Quas is unpasteurised, so its cultures are still active in the can. Cold slows them right down and keeps the flavour where it should be. Keep every can in the fridge at 2–6°C at all times, and unpack your box into the fridge as soon as it arrives. Our process is designed so Live Quas can travel unrefrigerated for the short next-day journey to you, but from the moment it arrives it needs the fridge.

Live Quas keeps for six weeks. Check the best-before date on the can. The cultures stay gently active even in the fridge, so the flavour slowly becomes more sour and less sweet with time. That is fermentation at work, not a fault.

Every box comes with Free Next-Day Delivery. Order Monday to Thursday by 4pm for next-day delivery. Shipping is included in the price, and every box travels by Royal Mail Tracked 24 or APC Overnight, with a tracking number.

If cans arrive damaged or leaking, our Safe Arrival Guarantee gives you credit or a discount on your next order, or a free replacement, with a full refund as a fallback. Live Quas is also covered when delivery is delayed by 5 days or more.

Yes. Choose two or all three flavours in the picker above and we will split your box between them.

Kvass and beer both start with fermented grain, and Quas shares beer's malty body and natural carbonation, so it sits comfortably beside a pint. The differences are in how they are made.

Most beer is brewed with hops and fermented with brewer's yeast, which turns sugars into alcohol. Alcohol-free beer is usually made the same way, then has the alcohol removed, or is fermented less. Quas has no hops. It is fermented with a sourdough culture of yeasts and lactic acid cultures, which gives it a tangy, bready character and a dry finish instead of hop bitterness. It is non-alcoholic, and Live Quas is unfiltered and unpasteurised, so the cultures are still in the can.

Kombucha is fermented from sweetened tea with a SCOBY, a culture in which acetic acid cultures are prominent. That is where its tart, vinegary edge comes from.

Quas is fermented from rye and barley with a sourdough culture dominated by lactic acid cultures. The result is malty and bready, with a clean, rounded sourness rather than a vinegar tang. If you find kombucha too sharp, Quas is a different lane: closer to a dark ale in body, and good with food.

Kvass on shop shelves varies a lot by producer. Some is not fermented at all, just sweetened, flavoured and carbonated. Some is fermented with baker's yeast, then filtered or pasteurised so it keeps for months without a fridge.

Live Quas is fermented with a sourdough culture of over 100 types of cultures, then left unfiltered and unpasteurised, with over 500 billion live cultures in every can. It contains no preservatives or acidity regulators. That is why it lives in the fridge and keeps for six weeks. To compare sugar, check each drink's label per 100ml: Quas has 2.4g to 2.5g.